Sunday, September 29, 2013

As Tasty predicted
weeks ago, SEIU’s Mike Fishman was
formally named to replace Eliseo Medina,
who’s stepping down on Tuesday as SEIU’s Secretary-Treasurer -- the second
highest position inside the Purple Palace.

Fishman’s selection was reported in this
article in The Hill, which says he was “elected” last week by SEIU’s
International Executive Board.

Medina’s rapid exit has fueled speculation that his
departure is connected with SEIU’s massive corruption scandal in California. On
October 7, SEIU’s Tyrone Freeman
will be sentenced in a federal courthouse following his conviction
on multiple criminal counts including embezzlement, theft of union assets, and mail fraud.

Where's Eliseo?

At the same exact time that Freeman was robbing millions from
low-wage healthcare workers in California, Medina’s office was
responsible for reviewing and co-signing the checks prepared by Freeman --
including the checks that Freeman used to carry out his embezzlement schemes.

Meanwhile, SEIU
continues to low-ball Medina's “retirement,” prompting further suspicion that he's departing under fire. On SEIU’s
website, there’s scarcely a peep about Medina's departure.And even though he doesn’t formally leave
his job until October 1, his name has already been removed from SEIU's website (see excerpt from SEIU's homepage).

It looks like Mary Kay Henry is rushing Medina out the door... and rapidly eliminating evidence of Medina's connection to SEIU.

Hmm... wonder if she's already revoked his
parking permit and stripped the nameplate from his top-floor
office.

Wednesday, September 25, 2013

On the heels of multiple
reports of purple vote-rigging, SEIU-UHW
officials recently announced that their “Unity Plan” has been “overwhelmingly”
approved by SEIU-UHW’s members.

Under the plan, SEIU-UHW’s Dave Regan will implement a new dues system that’ll boost workers’
maximum monthly dues to $124 a month -- a $40 increase from the current top
rate of $84 per month. And that’s not all. Regan now has the authority to
continue boosting the top dues rate by $10 a year… forever! That means that in eight
years, the top rate will by $204 per month.

SEIU-UHW members have
a bold vision to work together to improve the lives of millions of Californians
in 2014. That’s why 73.4% of voters chose to strengthen our union by adopting
the Unity Plan…

In an action that speaks volumes, SEIU-UHW failed to release the actual numbers of
votes that were supposedly cast for each option on the ballot.

Soon after the election results were "boldly" announced, the union’s
members began flooding SEIU-UHW’s FaceBook page with angry comments. Here’s a
sampling…

Dislike dislike
dislike dislike. I get to give them $40 more a month for them to do
NOTHING!!!!!!!!!

Now I get to pay more
dues than my charge nurse, who makes $70 an hour. Yeah, thanks SEIU.

I don't believe in any
of this stuff anymore, I know more people who voted against the unity plan and
now it's approved! Seiu does nothing for me!

What do you mean by a
fair playing field Michelle Cesar? Their is nothing fair about this vote! It
was rigged just like every other vote with SEIU!!

This is union is a
joke and we became the punch line...

This union is a
joke...wish we didn't have one! We pay them to do nothing!

Troy, since the
current leadership has been in control my previous position has been
eliminated, we have been shuffled around from unit to unit without any real say
about the matter, we have little and mostly no support with grievances, any
issues we have we have to defend ourselves. I direct those with issues to
people who will really help them, nearly all of the people former stewards of
the current leaders of NUHW. And now many face increases in dues from a group
that really doesn't care about us. Another issue I have with their "Unity
Plan" is that if we choose to work extra as many do not only do we make
more money but the purple also makes more money. They are garbage.

Powerful comments, right?

And get this: even though workers supposedly voted "overwhelmingly" for Regan's plan, virtually all of the comments on SEIU-UHW's own FaceBook page are angry attacks against Regan's visionary plan.

Monday, September 23, 2013

Recent developments at Dignity Health have thousands of SEIU-UHW's members screaming, "WE GOT SOLD OUT!"

Here’s what's happening.

One year ago, Dave Regan and Hal Ruddick negotiated
a pay freeze and massive benefit cuts for SEIU-UHW’s 14,000 members at Dignity
Health.

During the negotiations, Regan allowed Dignity’s execs to:

Freeze SEIU-UHW members’ pay

Make additional cuts to workers’ stripped-down retirement benefits

Cut healthcare coverage for workers’ dependents

Stop making contributions to workers’ training fund

Create a system of two-tiered retirement benefits at
Dignity’s hospitals in San Francisco that’ll force newly hired workers into
cheaper benefits, and

Implement an invasive wellness program.

And get this. Regan accepted these cuts even though Dignity had just pocketed $1.4 billion in profits, For workers, it was clear as day that Duplicitous Dave had once again
bedded down with their Boss.

Now,
they have proof that's even more convincing than a used condom.

Earlier this month, the California Nurses Association announced
it negotiated a new four-year contract covering 12,000 RNs at the same Dignity
hospitals where SEIU-UHW’s members work.

No pay freeze for CNA's members! Instead, they won a 9% pay increase on top of the 2-3% increase that RNs got earlier this year.

Plus, the CNA didn’t accept any of Regan’s benefit cuts... and they even created a new
benefit to cover on-the-job injuries that the CNA calls “the first in the nation for a major hospital system."

Here's an excerpt from the CNA's announcement, with an apparent dig at SEIU:

Registered nurses at
one of the nation’s largest hospital systems, Dignity Health, have reached a
major new tentative collective bargaining contract covering some 12,000 RNs at
28 Dignity hospitals in California and Nevada that nurses say is a sharp break from
a concessionary spiral so prevalent among many employers in healthcare and
other sectors.

At its center, the
agreement guarantees no reduction in health coverage, expands guaranteed
pensions and retiree health benefits, and establishes a dramatic new “RN
Accident Prevention Program” program that NNU says is the first in the nation
by a major hospital system that provides unprecedented supplemental insurance
protection for nurses injured in workplace violence or by needle stick
accidents...

Over the four years of the agreement, RNs
will receive additional pay hikes of 9 percent, on top of a 2 or 3 percent pay
increase (depending on location) earlier this year that is already in effect.

All the hospitals, including the Las Vegas
St. Rose Dominican facilities, will now be a part of one master unit, with
local bargaining maintained for individual facilities, with a system-wide RN
bargaining council to work to further assure quality patient care and RN
standards in all Dignity hospitals.

Tasty would love to be a fly on the wall when Regan makes his next visit to a Dignity hospital. Of course, don't expect that to happen any time soon. After all, Dave is soo busy dining with his buddy Duane Dauner at the California Hospital Association... how could he possibly find time to visit 14,000 Dignity workers who pay a fat portion of Dave's $300,000-a-year salary!

Friday, September 20, 2013

In California, workers report that Dave Regan’s effort to boost SEIU-UHW
members’ top dues rate to $124 a month has already suffered a defeat at a
number of hospitals where voting took place earlier this week.

At one Kaiser
Permanente hospital in Northern California, Regan’s plan was defeated by a four-to-one
margin: 155 to 42. At another Kaiser hospital in Southern California, it was
defeated by a vote of 108 to 82.

However, workers are worried that Regan has more dirty
tricks up his sleeves.

On Facebook, homecare workers report that
SEIU-UHW staffers are spreading misinformation in an effort to win support for
the dues hike. SEIU-UHW’s staffers are reportedly phoning homecare workers and telling them they won’t have to pay
any dues at all if they work fewer than 24 hours per month.

But that’s a lie!

Under
Regan’s plan, every member will pay dues, even homecare workers earning just $150
in a month, who’ll be required to pay the minimum dues rate of $32 per month.

If a purple misinformation campaign doesn't work, workers fear Regan will opt for an even bigger illegal scheme. Homecare workers are casting mail-in
ballots, which are being collected and stored by Regan’s staffers until they’re
ultimately counted. This gives Regan a perfect opportunity to
stuff the ballot box behind closed doors, say workers.

Finally... check out this “irony
of ironies.”

Readers may recall that in 2009,
the Purple Palace ordered the trusteeship of SEIU-UHW after the union’s board
refused to transfer 60,000 homecare workers to Tyrone Freeman’s union without first letting those workers vote on whether
or not they wanted to be transferred.

Nearly four years
later, SEIU has never ever transferred the homecare workers.

And now, Regan is trying to use
the homecare workers’ votes (both stuffed and unstuffed) to ram through a giant
dues hike on the rest of the union’s membership!

Tuesday, September 17, 2013

In California, Dave
Regan has deployed a hefty dose of dirty tricks in an effort to boost SEIU-UHW
members' top dues rate to $124 a month, according to multiple reports.

And that’s
not all.

If Regan wins the “vote,” the union’s maximum dues rate will continue
rising by $10 a year… forever! That means in eight years, the max dues rate
will be $204 per month… or nearly $2,500 a year!

It looks like “Wall Street” Dave is not satisfied with the $29
million in cash that SEIU-UHW already has in its bank account.

So what kind of dirty tricks is Regan using to try to
win the vote?

Here’s what Tasty has learned so far:

First, Regan has ordered the union's staff to phone-bank
members to urge them to vote "yes" on the dues hike. But Regan
has instructed the staff to only phone-bank workers who are likely to vote
"yes," such as homecare workers. One
phonebanker contacted Tasty and described Regan's telephone script, which begins:
""We've got exciting news to share with you..."

Meanwhile, Regan has a totally different approach for those union members who will be hit by giant dues increases if Regan is successful. Those members say they weren’t even informed about the times and locations for voting.
(Homecare workers are voting by mail!) One SEIU-UHW member reports she's already
filed a complaint with the NLRB and U.S. Department of Labor.

That’s not all.

Ten days ago, Regan imposed turnout quotas on SEIU-UHW's union reps and other staffers...
but only for turning out targeted voters who are likely to vote
"yes." On September 6, Regan announced these “get out the vote” quotas
during an all-staff meeting, which prompted a formal complaint from SEIU-UHW's staff
unions, which Tasty posted below.

Here’s the beginning of an email written by the presidents of the staff unions
to their co-workers:

Brothers and sisters,

I wanted to make sure
you all saw the letter below.

Last Friday, SEIU-UHW
President Dave Regan made numerous comments that were inappropriate and
outright disrespectful. Below is a joint statement from the current leadership
in both unions that denounces.

In response to the complaint, Regan penned an email to his
"Chief of Staff," Greg
Pullman. But apparently Dave ain’t so adept with email. He ended up sending his
email message to the wrong people, who eventually forwarded it to Tasty!

In the
email, Duplicitous Dave trashes a half dozen of SEIU-UHW’s
staffers, saying:

Thanks, I appreciate
it. What a drag. I could care less about Jarard, Carlyn and most others. But
what is up with Jonathan, Dave Pihl and Indira? I thought they were more
substantial than this.

The full emails are below. Looks like the "Dump Dave" movement is even gaining traction among SEIU-UHW's own staff!

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